Archive
Our Health Policy Matters: Public Health, Mental Health, and Health Policy in a Post-ACA World
Now that the ACA decision is behind us, what’s on the horizon in the world of public health, mental health, and health policy? The truth is that ACA was essentially neutral with respect to prevention and public health. 3% of our nation’s health funding went to these services last year, and 3% will continue to go to these services with or without ACA. That won’t stop the assault on public health. Federal, state, and local governments have all cut public health services in recent years and, unless we have a public health crisis, may well cut further.
See on Scoop.it – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law and Regulation
Hot Topics in Health Care Law — Saturday July 7, 2012
Today’s edition of Hot Topics in Health Care Law is available. This topic aggregator/newspaper contains articles that I think are on the cutting edge of health law.
90 Percent of Patients Want to Self-Manage Health Online: Accenture Survey – Health Care IT – News & Reviews
Patients want to access health information online and fill prescriptions electronically. But they also want face-to-face time with their doctor, a survey by Accenture revealed.
California physicians sue Aetna over out-of-network referrals
The California Medical Assn., the largest physician group in the state, and more than 60 individual doctors sued health insurance giant Aetna Inc. The suit against Aetna is part of a growing legal battle over what patients are charged when they go outside a health insurer’s network.
See on www.latimes.com
Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative: Barely A Ripple Now, Enormous Promise For Later – Health Affairs Blog
The initiative to prioritize primary care by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is one of the most significant and promising initiatives to come out of health reform to date.
Americans will need doctors but physicians are leaving primary care
With the aging of America and healthcare reform, more Americans will need primary care doctors at precisely the same time doctors are leaving the specialty in droves.
GE, IBM, and Boeing: Improving Health Care for their Employees
Through its HealthAhead program, online portal and mobile application, GE is communicating with employees and empowering them to take an active and accountable role in planning and managing their health, to engage in behaviors for healthy living and to demand value from the health care system.
The foundation of IBM’s approach to driving value and innovation in the health care delivery system is primary care transformation. IBM’s leaders believe that the primary care medical home model is a promising catalyst for overall health care delivery system reform.
In February 2007, Boeing launched the Intensive Outpatient Care Program (IOCP) to test an innovative health care delivery model designed to treat patients with multiple, complex conditions in a more efficient, high-touch manner. The IOCP was based on three key assumptions:
- Twenty percent of the high-cost population utilize 80 percent of health care spend;
- Medically complex individuals are underserved by the current fragmented, inefficient health care system and can benefit the most from personalized, coordinated care; and
- A breakthrough in health care delivery for medically complex patients could provide important lessons for the health care system and help shape the design of the future medical home delivery model.
See articles on all 3 companies on Scoop.it – Changing Healthcare for the Better
U.S. Faces Obstacles to Improving Health Care Value
The U.S. faces major obstacles in taking advantage of “value-based health care”—one of the most promising developments in health care, according to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). BCG assessed the progress of 12 developed-world countries in adopting value-based health care, an approach to better controlling health care costs by improving health outcomes at the same or lower cost.
Health Care Reform: Four Companies That Are Leading Change – Forbes
Uncertainty in the health care system is inspiring some companies to drive change and make urgent improvements, regardless of the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling.
Oversight of Quality of Care in Medicaid Home and Community Based Services Waiver Programs
See on Scoop.it – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law and Regulation
Seven of the twenty-five States that the OIG reviewed did not have adequate systems to ensure the quality of care provided to beneficiaries. Although CMS renewed the waiver programs in all seven of these States, three did not adequately correct identified problems. Not only did these States fail to correct these problems before renewal of their programs, they also had still not adequately addressed the problems long after renewal. In addition, CMS did not consistently use the few tools it has to ensure that States correct problems related to quality of care.
See on www.oig.hhs.gov
Joseph Rugg's Health Law Blog 